Security Slideshow: 10 Legislative Trends to Watch in 2011

Financial Reporting

Financial reporting via XBLR will accelerate and CIOs will further enable XBRL throughout financial reporting systems in order to reduce data format conversion errors, says Gartner Research VP Joseph Bugajski.

Getting a handle on potential legal and legislative changes can determine whether an organization ratchets down risk and steers clear of trouble or finds itself in the crosshairs of government and media scrutiny. Making matters worse, the global nature of today's business environment means that it's necessary to monitor legal and legislative trends around the world. Many countries—particularly those in Europe—are looking to toughen laws surrounding privacy and security. Many, too, are eyeing or pondering new stringent environmental laws—along with strict reporting requirements. To help us compile this list of the 10 legal/legislative trends that every CIO should watch, we turned to Clinton Smith, Manager of IT Risk and Compliance at Grant Thornton LLP, and Joseph Bugajski, Research VP at Gartner. Smith believes the situation won't get easier anytime soon. Tracking legal and legislative developments is essential, and addressing these issues proactively is not only smart, it's cost effective. These aren't topics reserved solely for your Governance Risk & Compliance brain trust to fret over: Since IT plays a central role in managing data and systems, these are your challenges, too.